Ramy Qudmany is a talented 28 year old 3D artist from Syria. He helped master his skills by working with industry pioneers such as a talented animator for the film, Rio. In speaking about the film Ice Age, he says Sid the sloth was his favorite character because of hilarious lines like, “If I die, find me a wife and tell her I was a good lover,” which he acts out with full dramatic effect. In 2015, Ramy won the Middle East Talent Award for his excellence in animation.

Since he arrived at Kara Tepe Refugee Camp in Lesvos, Greece some three weeks ago, we have become good friends, sharing meals and discussions on everything from Turkish dating customs to Japanese anime. As I pieced together the painful details of how he got to this point, I was blown away by his overwhelmingly positive attitude, resilience, and continual focus on making others happy.

The following was written by Ramy himself in a sweltering, focus- driven 7 ½ hour typing session under a tarp beside the food trucks lining the entrance to Kara Tepe. I provided only minor edits and English language consultation. This is his story.

Ramy Qudmany, portrait in an Ankara diner.

Five years ago, I was living back in Syria enjoying the perfect life before the war broke out. I had achieved my dream of being a 3D animator for short movies in addition to making songs for kids and TV commercials. I used to work for a big company in the Middle East called NewBoy, who focused on toy development and had their own cartoon channel for children as well.

Work in this beautiful environment was fun, with toys scattered all around that I could use every day to get ideas for the next commercial. As a member of the creative team tasked with generating new ideas, my favorite part was playing with children to understand what they like and how they think. One time I was learning to use the yo-yo from my little brother and was practicing tricks and skills from him so I could make this commercial. In the brainstorming meeting at work, everyone was talking about ideas while I was just making moves with this yo-yo. Everyone knew me for my sense of humor as I was the one in the company (and with my family) to play funny pranks. They didn’t cause any harm, but they really made people laugh.

Ramy, front row and center with friends at work.

When I started, I was the youngest employee in the company. After five years there, I was promoted to animation supervisor which I was only able to do for two months before I left because of the war. It was so cool that all of my relatives and children in the family were so happy to see me. They would tell me how excited they were to see my works on TV and it felt really good that I could draw a smile on their faces.

One of the many impressive pieces Ramy worked on.

At the end of the workday, I would go to the gym and then hang out with my friends, or meet up with my girlfriend. In my free time, my family and I liked to help those who were less fortunate than us, knowing that not everyone in the world had the same chances to live a good life.

I remember once, there was a woman who was going door-to-door and selling sauce, a very uncommon in the Arab world, especially for a woman My father asked why she was working like this. She said her husband had been badly injured and couldn’t work anymore of even move his legs. We bought sauce, but also took her phone number to help her out later.

My friends and I were able to convince a doctor to help her husband for free. My father and I brought furniture to fill her house and make it nice My other friend found cooking work for her since she made a good sauce and had some skills in that area. We tried to help people when we could. We imagined ourselves in their situation and knew that helping others would make the world bring good to us as well. We were a point of hope for the hopeless.

The war in Syria had already broken out, but was not yet in my city of Damascus when I was walking home from work one day. I was waiting in the street to meet up with my girlfriend for dinner in a restaurant. After she had not shown up, I got a screaming call from her saying, “Ramy the sound of shooting is everywhere and the people are running afraid in the street. I got stuck here. It’s like judgment day has come.”

I told her that I would come to her and calm her down, but after we ended the call, I noticed there were no longer cars coming down the street. Quickly, machine gun fire filled the air, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. One taxi came down the street, but he refused to take me to my girlfriend’s location. When another appeared, I told him I would pay him whatever amount of money he wanted to take me to her. Luckily, he was headed in that direction anyway, so he said that was no problem.

As we were driving, we got stopped at a checkpoint where we were asked for our ID cards. I didn’t understand what was going on or what side these people were from since it was my first time getting stopped at a checkpoint; we didn’t have something like that before.

At the same time, my girlfriend called and said she managed to get back to her house safely which made me feel a bit of relief. After the call ended, some people appeared in front of the check point and started shooting towards us. I instantly ducked my head down behind the seats to avoid getting shot. I screamed at the taxi driver, “What are you waiting for?! Get out of here!” The taxi driver said, “I’m waiting for our ID cards, they took them.” I responded saying “Fuck the ID cards, just get us out of here!”

The guy at the checkpoint echoed the same opinion, telling the driver to get out of there. He threw the ID cards to the taxi driver who reversed the car and drove away, only to be stopped again in 500 meters by a guy with a machine gun in the middle of the street.

The man with the machine gun approached us and said, “Stop! Take this family with you out of here.” A family that was hiding behind a building showed themselves. The father passed his son through the window and onto my lap as he and his wife got into the back, she in tears.

The taxi drove away and I asked the father what the hell was going on. He replied, “The army gave the order to evacuate because they are going to attack this area to fight the Revolution Army which had snuck in.” When I turned my attention back to the road, I noticed the driver was going directly toward the place where the sound of gunfire was coming from. “What the hell are you doing?!? Why don’t you go in the other direction to a safe place?!!? Did you lose your mind?!”

“My house is over there and I need to check on my family,” the driver said, as people were running and screaming in the streets. I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get out of there and that would be the spot where I was killed.

The taxi finally made it to the main street, but had to wait before it crossed the intersection as heavy fire was being exchanged between the Syrian Army and the Revolution Army. “What the fuck are you doing?!” I screamed. “If you cross this street, we will get killed! Are you fucking crazy?!”

“I need to…and I will do it!” the driver yelled back as his vehicle inched forward. We got lucky as we made it across the street without getting shot. As we moved up the street, people were running and screaming all around us. What made me most scared was that the taxi was going to the place where the people were running from.

An Army helicopter swooped down over us and so close to the ground. From my angle, I could see the Revolution group moving slowly behind a building, trying to hide from the helicopter. I thought to myself, “Holy fuck, if the helicopter sees them, it will start firing toward us.” The taxi moved away from that area and I asked the driver to stop and let me out.

I recognized this area because it was where I went to school as a kid. I started running towards the direction of my house as people asked me what was happening in the area I just came from. “A fucking war has started,” I said as I ran for the safety of my house. I remember thinking at the time that this was the worst day of my life.

A few days later, the Army came to our street with tanks. They stayed there day and night, but as the darkness set in, the sounds of shooting from the street erupted through the windows. My family and I decided we had to leave before it got any worse.

While the world tries to crack the complex and volatile political background of the situation searching for a solution in Syria, millions of dollars of bombs continue to rain down on cities all across the country daily, destroying both homes and lives. Fear of reprisal keeps many Syrians from publicly voicing their own political opinions, but it’s clear that every displaced Syrian resident I speak to just wants the opportunity to live their life.

In Part Two, Ramy tells of his horrific journey across European borders from a war-zone.